


Mightnighttalks

by Schattenfeuer



Category: Nightmare Harem (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Other, Reader-Insert, Sad, genderneutral reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25746637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schattenfeuer/pseuds/Schattenfeuer
Summary: Every night he comes to visit you, everytime he shares the stories you missed.
Relationships: Lucia/Reader





	Mightnighttalks

“Kurt, don’t fidget at the table.”, a small smile played around his lips, hid in the corners of his mouth before he lifted his glass and tried to prevent anyone from witnessing this. Today was not about him, not at all. Today was about you, all about you. Everyone in his estate had gathered for this special meal, even Kaim had joined in. Dropping his gaze down on his plate, he couldn’t help but push the food around, his throat too dry despite his earlier drink, his stomach tied into knots. You always did those things to him, made him feel emotions that were so at war with each other, he was surprised his body wasn’t torn in half by their strength. 

Only vaguely did he hear Kurt’s apology, tinted with childlike regret and how his brother would just not stop staring at him. Despite all his contrarian ways and his rough attitude, Levy could sense the turmoil raging within the other demon. Truth be told, Lucia was more than sure in his assumption that every single member of this estate could sense it on his bad days. 

But today was not one of those. Today he smiled, even if it never reached his eyes. His gaze fell on the place next to him and there it was again, that waning, heavy feeling constricting his chest, threatening to crush the cage of his ribs and shred what remained of his heart into pieces. Heavy was the head that wore the crown or something like that you had once said to him. Back then you had smiled and shared some amusing stories about kings of your own world. 

Today, the meal was taken in rather somber silence, like every year since the second dawning of the red moon. Part of him wished that you had returned to your home back then instead of staying at his side. Sure, your presence had soothed an ache within him that he didn’t even knew he had, but at what price? You had told him, over and over again, that you were optimistic. This was a world of magic after all. 

And he was the most talented of all. He was the future king, surely if he couldn’t do it, no one could. It had been his pride that had sped things up. Or rather, that had caused the second shoe to drop. Maybe, if he had just discarded this foolish pride as the firstborn, as the future king and reached out, towards Mikael, towards others, maybe then he would not be sitting here, forcing food down his throat that tasted like ash and drinking wine that resembled more vinegar on his tongue. 

In the darkest hours of the night, when he was up sleepless, he sometimes even came so far as to blame it all on you. If only you hadn’t appeared out of nowhere the night of the red moon. If you two hadn’t grown so close, maybe then he wouldn’t be here, left behind to stitch together the shredded remainders of his beating heart. No, he shook his head ever so slightly and finally returned Levy’s inquiring gaze with a calm one of his own. If you hadn’t appeared and started to poke around the tangled yawn that was this family’s business, he surely would have lost more than just time at your side. 

The balance between bittersweet memories and the sharp pain your absence had left behind was a particular delicate one, especially now, when the day of your departure had come and went, was about to be concluded in this ritual of gathering and silently sharing the burden. At least now, there were no more tearful questions from Kurt. The pitying gazes had disappeared, finally. Everyone had accepted, had worked through this nasty topic and moved on. Even he himself, despite how he had cursed and screamed in the earlier days to never move on. 

The fiery denial had left his body, had bled out of him in a creeping process, slow enough that he did not realize he had been bleeding himself dry of everything he had and when it was all gone, a numbness settled in his bones, neither reassuring nor discouraging, just simply there. Time would not stop moving, the seasons had changed so many times since he last held you close, eventually it would all be well again. 

So were his thoughts as he left the estate in the late hours of the evening, alone underneath the bright eyed moon as he followed the twisting path, out of the estate gardens, up the knoll behind it. You had looked so peaceful towards the end, while he had been coming apart at the seams, it should have been him to take you in his arms and soothe the worries that plagued your mind, yet it had been you who had held him. With boney fingers had you combed through his red locks, your twig thin arms somehow warm and cold at the same time from what was slowly robbing you away from his side. From where you belonged.

A sickness from your world, he could still see the macabre smile dancing over your chapped lips, as you explained it. You were dead the moment you stepped foot here on Nightmare’s soil. Even if you returned, three months of missed treatment were too many. Your body was fighting itself, collapsing into itself, each day a little bit more. 

You were a cruel one, to stay at his side, despite having only so little time left. You were cruel in the way you believed that there would be hope, in the way you never gave up, even when he failed again and again and again. And when your time finally came, you smiled at him so brightly that it hurt his eyes, radiant despite the haggard look of your fallen in cheeks and ashen skin. He had clasped your hand in his own, carefully as if he was holding a baby bird, but he could not stop the way your pulse calmed down until it no longer existed. There was none of the pain you had feared as you peacefully faded in your sleep, leaving him behind despite swearing to stay at his side. 

The very least he could do for you was provide a proper burial, he knew nothing of the rites of humans, nothing but rumors and fairy tales, but he thought that maybe, you liked the way Nightmare handled those kind of grim things, after all you had decided to stay here. In a way, he had been selfish too, by putting you to rest in his family’s crypt, he had a physical reminder that you had been there, that you belonged to him in some ways. 

As he stood here now, alone and in front of your gravestone, Lucia finally let go of the tired mask he had worn for so long that he barely felt it anymore, his shoulders slumped and his eyes started to prick hotly as the letters of your name stared back at him, aggressive, accusing. Kneeling on the cold earth, he ignored the stains of dirt and grass left on his clothes and ran his fingertips over the curves and edges and shapes of your name, just as tenderly as he had painted idle patterns on your skin. 

“Hey there.”, he whispered softly, afraid that if he spoke too loudly, he would disrupt your eternal slumber, all while the world started to blur together, warm rain gathered in his eyelashes and left the distinct taste of salt in his mouth. “It’s been another year without you. I missed you at dinner today, everyone else did too. Let me tell you what you’ve missed…”

You’ve missed so much ever since you were gone.


End file.
